Field of Invention
The present invention is generally directed to mobile payments, and more specifically directed to a gateway for processing purchase requests typically originating from a website serving a mobile user for debiting an account associated with the wireless user, where the account is maintained by a mobile operator.
Prior Art
The use of a computer connected via the Internet allowing a user to purchase goods and services from a website has been known for some time. The growing proliferation of mobile devices, such as mobile phones, “smart phones,” wirelessly connected tablets, and other such devices, offers an additional level of convenience for users desiring to purchase goods and services on-line. Hence, it is not surprising that such mobile devices are often used for accessing websites for purchasing goods and services. Individuals frequently carry their mobile phone with them, so that they typically possess it when they are “out and about” and thus it can provide a ready mechanism for purchasing items. Further, some vendors only have a “virtual” presence, e.g., a website for providing goods and services. For example, downloading a ringtone may only be available to a customer accessing a website to obtain the ringtone. There is no mail-order access or a “brick and mortar” store for a customer to purchase the ringtone.
When using a mobile device for making purchases, an electronic payment method of some form is used. In some cases, this may involve using a credit card or debit card. However, even using a credit or debit card still requires the person to carry a wallet, which is inconvenient in some instances. Alternatively, the user can memorize their credit card/debit account numbers, but most people do not readily know this information. Consequently, if they do not have the credit card, they cannot purchase the item at the website. Further, while many potential purchasers may have a credit/debit card, many other individuals do not. For a number of reasons, individuals may not have, may not qualify, or may not choose to use a credit/debit card. These types of individuals are sometimes referred to as “unbanked” users. Merchants limiting their customer base to only those customers having a credit or debit cards are excluding a large customer base of unbanked users. Many unbanked users would like to make purchases, and often would like to use their mobile phones to do so.
Wireless carriers (a.k.a. wireless service providers, wireless operators, mobile network operators or mobile operators) presently maintain and perform identification and security for mobile devices, and this capability can be used to facilitate security for purchase of wireless services from the mobile user. In this scenario, existing methods used by the wireless carrier for ensuring identification and verification of the mobile device can be relied upon. For example, when downloading a ring-tone from a wireless carrier, the wireless carrier will know the identity of the mobile phone device, the telephone number associated with the phone, and associated account information of the user of the mobile phone. The carrier thus knows whether the mobile device is authenticated and whether the user is in good standing. However, this arrangement presumes that the carrier is the merchant. If the merchant is not the carrier, then this information is not known by the merchant.
Wireless carriers also maintain an account of some sort for their users. This can be a “post-paid” account (e.g., invoiced and billed on a monthly basis after service has been used) or a “pre-paid” account (paid in advance prior to use of the service). Post-paid users are typically referred to as “subscribers” since they have established a commitment for wireless service, typically for a specified term. Pre-paid users are typically not referred to as “subscribers,” since they have no time commitment, and are often simply referred to as “pre-paid users.” In this invention, “users” without qualification, refers to any type of user (post-paid or pre-paid).
In a pre-paid mobile phone environment, the user arranges for a sum of money to be credited to a pre-paid mobile phone account, which is debited as calls are made. When the pre-paid user roams on another wireless carrier's network, signaling mechanisms may be used so the wireless network serving the roaming pre-paid user may query the user's home wireless network provider to determine the availability of credit associated with the pre-paid users so that communication services can be provided, and to debit the user's account for services rendered in real time. A wireless network serving a roaming pre-paid user would likely not extend service to the user if user has an account of zero, and there was no possibility of compensation. Thus, there are signaling mechanisms to verify the account status of a pre-paid user by a remote serving network.
This type of infrastructure could be adapted for facilitating wireless purchases by a mobile phone user. Specifically, unbanked wireless customers could use their wireless pre-paid account to pay for purchases. Providing this capability requires appropriately defined systems for processing such requests. Specifically, systems and methods are needed for processing requests from the websites selling the goods for debiting accounts and allowing the website to be reimbursed from a mobile operator managing the account.